6 Answers
6

This post has been out there for a while - but I found that first parboiling the potatoes (about 10 minutes); then baking them, skins ON in a low-medium temperature oven, until cooked; then cooling slightly and scooping out the flesh; made for much fluffier and generally lighter gnocchi.

Of course, you still need to mash the flesh well, but having it pre-cooked and almost dried out, means that mashing/handling the dough is minimised.

Nothing special, that's for sure. It's been a few months since I made the gnocchi like this, but I'm almost certain that I just used the regular unwashed potatoes available as the cheap option in supermarkets in Australia. I assume they're Sebago. Desiree would be the only other type I could have possibly used.
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KimbaFOct 21 '10 at 17:25

What you want is a mealy potato, not a waxy one. The correct kind will generally have a rough skin, not a smooth one. In most cases, it'll also be brown, not red or yellow (or purple).
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MartiOct 19 '11 at 23:38

To me the key is to work in as little flour as possible. And that means that the potato should be as dry as possible.

That is why I say just bake the potato with the skins wrapped in tinfoil with some water and a little salt (you aren't tightly wrapping each potato, but rather wrapping 2-3 of them together loosely).

Also mash then with a ricer, you can easily spread the potato out to cool and dry further.

Use all purpose flour or better yet a low protein soft wheat flower. Add the flour in stages, and don't over knead it. Once it just gets to the point of being workable to where you can shape it you are there.

You will need an egg, as even if you use a high protein flour you shouldn't be kneading it enough to develop the gluten's that would hold it together (that would cause it to be chewy). You will probably loose a good amount of gnocchi the first couple times due to it falling apart in your water. But once you do it a couple a times you'll get the hang of how it should feel.

I don't really want to tell you a certain amount flour as it depends so much on humidity and other things, you really are just going to gave to try it a few times and get a feel for it.

You could also try making nontraditional gnocchi (I believe they're called gnocchi a la Parisienne? Can't remember and I'm not digging up my notes from school right now) using pate a choux instead.

Essentially you make your standard pate a choux (this is the cooked pastry dough you use for eclairs, profiteroles, etc), and then drop gnocchi-sized dollops into well-seasoned (pasta water should be as salty as Mama Mediterranean, per Mario Batali) water, cook until done. They come out very fluffy, and are best suited to very light sauces.

My Italian professor comes from Napoli or Naples in English said you should boil until fork tender and add one part of flour for four parts mashed warm potato add reconstituted porch ini mushrooms or sun dried tomatoes chopped fine and kneaded into a dough before rolling out and cutting. Rook the gnocchi over the teeth of a fork so sauce can hold on before boiling. Then boil until they float then remove and toss with a sage butter sauce.